All mold and asbestos has been removed from station 3 and the mold from station 1. We would llike to thank the Department and DC Creech for their cooperation with the union and continued effort to resolve the issue.

12-03-07

DC Creech has informed us that the mold abatement at station one watch desk is scheduled for Thursday December 6. The watch desk area will be available for limited use.

11-28-07

DC Creech has informed us that Fire Station 3 asbestos and mold removal is complete. The air quality is in the process of being retested. The Station One watch room cleaning is scheduled to be done next.

11-19-07

DC Creech has informed us that the station 3 cleaning is moving along. The locker room and apparatus floor mold issues have been cleaned. They are in the process on removing the asbestos and mold from the basement. Once that is complete, the station will be retested again for air quality. Sec Murray is working with the City to keep things moving along. It has been going as well as we could have hoped for at this point. Hopefully, station 3 will be back in normal operation soon.

As most of you know the union has been involved in every step of this process so far. Joe Williams has sent several emails describing the latest news on the issue. Joe Williams and Joey Thorington have been paying careful attention to the inspections and results and providing us all with the information. You all know as much as we do. I know the concerns some have especially those assigned to station 3.

Everything is being done that needs to be done. We have complete confidence in the companies working on the problems. They gave us the recommendations and all of them are being followed. There has been zero resistance from the city to get the hazards corrected and their actions have been swift.

The problem at 3’s is that the asbestos must be mitigated before the mold can be in the crawl space. The area has been sealed off for occupant protection. The city must develop specs to contract the work. They are working as fast as they can. The threat to occupants was identified in this area of the station. No other immediate threat to life areas were reported. Professionals will be hired to do all of the recommended cleaning and mitigation. The companies were asked if the buildings should be shut down until the problem can be resolved and the answers were “no”. We need to allow the city the time to correct the problem.

The union will continue to monitor the progress as we already have. I do not believe we would see the actions being taken now had we not stayed on top of this issue. I know this is an inconvenience but please be patient.

At this time the union does not believe it would be prudent to hire our own testing to be done. The results already received are trustworthy and we would likely have to hire the same contractors to do it anyway. If at any time we feel the need to, we will revisit this alternative. The city will likely expend over $120,000 on this issue before it is done. When this is complete we will all be in a healthier and safer environment than most of us have been in throughout our careers.